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Long Awaited Shadowgun Legends Android and iOS Review

After a long Beta period, Shadowgun Legends for Android and iOS is finally here. The series is about a group of mercenaries who hunts and kills aliens called the “Torment”.

The game does not really give us a backstory for the alien invasion, or even why the aliens want to take over the galaxy in the first place. All you know is that the aliens are bad, and they need to be destroyed.

The story of the game is clearly not something that MADFINGER games wanted to focus on, but still, it’s nice to know what you are fighting for.

Anything about the lore of the game only appears in the quest logs and the loading screen. There are also no cut scenes to bring you into the game.

Even though the game lacks a narrative, the game still feels like a solid title. If you are familiar with the likes of Halo and Destiny, you will certainly get the same vibe from Shadowgun Legends. Which is not a bad thing at all.

This formula actually works pretty well on mobile.

The Hub

You will start the game in the central hub. Here you will find an armor shop, weapons shop, cosmetic shop, a casino and even a bar. There is also an area to drop into PVP.

The first thing you will notice is how amazing the game looks. I was taken aback a little bit as I was not expecting the game to look that good. While playing the game though, you will notice little things here and there, however, those things are nothing major.

Note – you will not experience any lag or stutter on the iPhone X

Upon completing missions, you will notice that your “Fame” goes up. Fame is a points system in the game to assess your global ranking.

Once you make it to 20%, a drone will follow you around when you enter the hub, and an announcement will be made of your presence. Just like that, you are famous!

These Fame points apply to PVP as well

The Tutorial & Quests

During the tutorial phase, you will have to complete a couple of missions, and thereafter you are on your own.

Shadowgun Legends is mainly about you accepting and completing quests, and these quests are carried by NPC’s scattered across the game. These NPC’s will have a “!” next to them. All you have to do is walk up to them and accept the quest.

There are side quests and then there is the main quest. The main quest can only be accessed through an NPC called Slade. He is also the first NPC you meet in the game.

Rest of the NPC’s are mostly there is fill up space.

High Roller

The Casino offers you some slot machines to play around with, and sometimes you can make some money off them, but mostly you are just losing money. So you are better off not gambling.

But if you are feeling lucky, go for it!

The bar offers you drinks which increases your stats, and then there is the sponsorship area where you can choose your sponsors. These sponsors will reward you with payments every few hours.

Honestly, there are only three main NPC’s in the game; the NPC’s that offer gear, side quests, and the main quest.

Missions

The mission structure in Shadowgun Legends is pretty simple. At first, you only have access to one planet called Nova Castillo, which a similar to earth in some aspects (according to the game).

A small back story is provided once you make it through the loading screen, and you will be dropped in a small area on the map.

Shadowgun Legends does not feature too much exploration as the maps themselves are very linear. I don’t mind that at all given it is, in fact, a mobile game.

Auto-Shoot

As mentioned earlier, the shooting takes place in first-person and you are assisted with auto-shoot, which can be turned off at any time. I would not recommend this though, as I sort of struggled with accuracy once I got rid of it.

You might find the game too easy at first, however as the game progresses so does the difficulty. The AI in the game seems very unintelligent in the initial stages, and it might throw you off a little bit, but trust me it gets better.

I believe MADFINGER has got the length of the missions absolutely perfect, as I never got bored while playing a game even though some tasks seem repetitive.

The more I played Shadowgun Legends, the more addictive it became. Because every time you go back to the hub after a mission you see your Fame and XP going up.

And this actually makes you want to complete another mission, and another after that. That right there is a sign of a successful game.

Another thing to note is the amount of gear that is available in the game. IT’S A LOT. Both Cosmetic and Practical. You can truly customize your character to make it unique and stand out.

You also need to be strategic about what gear you use as each item has its advantages and disadvantages.

Weapons

You can carry around three types of weapons. Your main rifle, a heavy weapon (rocket launchers etc.), and a pistol.

Obviously, your main weapon will be the most important, and it is vital that you check weapon stats before equipping yourself with it.

Sometime a weapon will have good stats, but may not suit your playing style. So watch out for that.

You may be inclined to choose a fully automatic weapon initially, however, I found that using semi-auto weapons (fires in short bursts) works better with the auto shoot mechanism.

Gear

No doubt it is the gear in Shadowgun Legends that take center stage due to the variety and the impact it has on the game and how you play. It is clear that MADFINGER spent a lot of time on this aspect of the game.

The game does feature quite a bit of IAP’s. And some would say that in order to fully enjoy the game you will have to spend.

However, I found that if you are willing to spend some time with the game, it will eventually reward you, and even if you make purchases, in time, what you bought would become obsolete as the items you gather through quests would be as good or even better than purchased items.

There are 12 slots you can equip items to, including 3 weapon slots and 5 armor slots. There is a tire system in place for gear where, gray is for common items, and up to yellow, which is legendary.

You can even paint and recolor armor pieces.

In Shadowgun Legends, you also have the option to augment the skill system. You get skill points by completing quests which you can spend later.

You can use these points to increase your HP or your battle skills, like the auto-turret, which is super cool.

PVP

What good are all those skills and gear if you can’t show them off?

That is why you have PVP. There are 6 different PVP options to choose from; from one-on-one battles to teams of four battles. You can also team up with other players to take down hoards of alien scum!

Co-Op

The co-op battles are actually bit of a letdown. You would imagine a co-op mission to be killing wave after wave of aliens and then taking down the big boss at the end, together.

Instead, the co-op mission was mainly about completing tap-to-interact tasks you had to complete with your teammates, whom which you have no way of communicating.

Most of the time was spent wandering around the map looking for and completing these tasks.

What a shame.

In the Voltaic Fist mission, you need four players at the end to actually complete it. However, you will find that by then, your teammates have already logged out due to boredom, and it is virtually impossible to finish the mission without at least four players (Writing from experience). Oh well…

Rest of the game

Everything else in the game though plays out beautifully. Shadowgun Legends actually does a fair job at bring the Halo/Destiny feel into a mobile game, and for that, total props for MADFINGER.

However, you get that unexplainable feeling that something is missing.

The Good

We love the fact that the missions are not unnecessarily dragged, and this keeps the game fresh. The combat and movement is quick and smooth, the gear system is fantastic, and apart from the Co-Op and he lack of story in missions, MADFINGER has done a great job in keeping the game moving fast and exciting.

The story is obviously not the main focus of the game, and as a player what I found myself focusing more on Fame progression and my gear.

Final Thoughts

Shadowgun Legends has its pros and cons, however the Pros I believe outweigh the cons, and that kept me going back to the game. The game needs a bit of fine tuning in FPS mechanics department, to really make it a memorable title, and I am sure in the coming months there will be updates.

Overall, Shadowgun Legends is a pretty good title and I did have a lot of fun playing it, which is what is important.

The game is free to download and there is no reason as to why you shouldn’t give it a try.